Second Chance in Dry Creek. Janet Tronstad

her sons from the law. He felt the same way about Renee. He might have made his share of mistakes in life, but he didn’t want Renee to suffer for hers. He’d take the punishment himself if he could.

      Lord, what is that daughter of mine mixed up in? Calen prayed silently. Why hadn’t Renee sent him word when she’d left her mother’s place? He would have driven anywhere to pick her up and bring her home with him. He had saved money for a down payment on a ranch of his own, but he had stopped looking for property. He wanted to have the cash to pay the investigators if they ever picked up a lead on Renee. Now it seemed that he might need his seventy thousand dollars for a defense attorney instead.

      He sensed Gracie standing straight beside him even though his eyes were on Sheriff Carl Wall stepping out of his county car. Now that Calen had come to terms with what was happening, he wished it wasn’t Gracie standing next to him. He never had managed to look good in her eyes and, while he’d made his peace with that, he still wished he could stand tall when he was next to her. A man needed to have some pride around a woman he had once loved, especially when the woman had never really noticed his existence. He only hoped things didn’t get any worse—and that, if they did, Gracie wasn’t standing beside him to see it all.

      Chapter Two

      Gracie watched the sheriff step up onto the porch. He wasn’t wearing his uniform and looked as if he’d grabbed the closest jeans and sweatshirt he could find to put on his large frame. The man’s face was plain, but his heart was good and Gracie was glad he was here.

      “What’s wrong?” the lawman asked, peering into the shadows.

      The headlights were still on in Renee’s car and Rusty had gone over there to race around that vehicle for a change.

      “We have a woman who’s been hurt,” Gracie said. A nudge would be all it should take for the sheriff to know that the priority was to treat Renee’s wounds. Any questions about that ski mask could wait.

      “She’s lost a fair amount of blood,” Tyler added.

      “Any reason we can’t move her?” the sheriff asked, as he crouched down beside her.

      “No broken bones as far as I can tell,” Tyler noted as he looked Renee over. “She’d ride more comfortably in the ambulance if there’s one on the way out from Miles City.”

      “It should be here in a few minutes,” the sheriff said, as he stood back up and looked around. “Any idea what happened?”

      Gracie tried to keep her eyes off Calen, but she didn’t succeed. Shadows hid his face and a muscle flexed in his jaw. His brown hair hadn’t been combed, falling forward as he looked down at his daughter. She’d always thought he was one of those charming men who waltzed through life with no troubles. Her husband used to say Calen never turned down a chance to party, and that’s why Buck had claimed he’d stopped hanging out with him after they were married. But Calen wasn’t having a good time tonight. Strangely enough, the worry in his eyes made him more handsome than she remembered.

      “We found a black ski mask on her,” Calen finally said, his voice flat as he looked up and faced the sheriff resolutely.

      The lawman grunted in surprise. “I got a message that they’d arrested one of the thieves tonight. The other one got away. The fools tried to rob that gas station between Havre and Malta. The owner is ex-military and he had a gun behind the counter. Used it, too.”

      “I thought they were looking for two men,” Gracie reminded everyone. “A gunshot wound doesn’t mean a crime has been committed.”

      She knew all about the mistakes that could be made in the legal system, and she didn’t want this young woman to suffer through an arrest if she was innocent.

      The sheriff shrugged. “Maybe the other one did all the talking. With a ski mask, the second one could have been a woman, if she was slight. Besides, what other reason does she have for being in this area?”

      “She’s my daughter,” Calen said. “She was coming to see me.”

      Gracie noticed that stopped the sheriff for a moment. “Not little Renee? I remember her riding that horse you had. She wasn’t more than twelve or so.”

      The sheriff looked down at the young woman as though trying to see traces of the child she had been. Gracie wished she’d taken a minute to wash the grime off the woman’s face. She looked like a pixie who had fallen out of a tree, all bruises and smudges and torn clothes.

      “She was fourteen when she was here last,” Calen continued after a moment, his voice strained. “Sixteen when she ran away from her mother’s home. That’d make her nineteen now, almost twenty. She’s always been small for her age. Any trouble she’s in is my fault. I should have made her mother send her to me. Those weeks she spent with me on the Elkton Ranch were all I had. She’s a good kid. Maybe a little wild, but she needed her father and I wasn’t there for her."

      Gracie watched Calen stumble to a halt. She had always assumed he had no deep sorrows in life. She knew tonight that she’d been wrong.

      “You can’t argue with the courts in those custody battles,” the sheriff said as he stood up. “Back then they almost always gave it to the mother. There wasn’t much you could have done.”

      Gracie saw another flash of headlights coming down the road to her house. “That must be the ambulance now.”

      They were all silent as the ambulance came close to the house and parked with the other vehicles. Two male paramedics jumped out almost before the driver had stopped. Renee made a soft sound, and Gracie figured the pounding of their footsteps had reached her unconscious.

      Tyler and the sheriff stepped aside as the paramedics both knelt down, one reaching out to take her pulse and the other feeling for broken bones.

      “She’s got a gunshot wound in the side,” Tyler said from the corner where he stood.

      The paramedic taking the pulse looked up at the sheriff.

      The lawman shrugged. “Medical problems take precedent. We don’t know for sure how she got shot.” He looked at Gracie as he talked to the young men. “A gunshot wound does not prove a crime has actually taken place.”

      The other paramedic was removing Renee’s shoes when she winced and seemed to wake up a bit more.

      “Looks like a sprain, too,” he said.

      “I’ll get the stretcher,” the other paramedic said.

      Gracie took a step closer to Renee and knelt down again, reaching over to brush the brown hair back from her face. Her eyes fluttered open and, again, the night deepened their searching violet color.

      “These men are going to help you,” Gracie said, trying to gauge whether her words were penetrating. “The ambulance will take you to a clinic where they can get you all fixed up.”

      “No,” the young woman gasped, as she looked around frantically and tried to sit up. “I can’t—”

      Calen knelt on the other side of her, and it did not take long for Renee to see him. Her eyes focused on him and she quieted down. “Daddy?”

      She lay back down.

      “I’m here,” Calen said as he touched her shoulder.

      “Please,” Renee said, and then gulped. “Please—Tessie—”

      “I’ll do whatever I can to help you,” Calen pledged, his voice filled with emotion. “I don’t know about your partner, but—”

      By that time, the paramedics were back. “Excuse us.”

      Gracie and Calen both stood and moved so the men would have room to load Renee onto the stretcher. Just the lifting seemed too much and she passed out again. The driver of the ambulance had backed the vehicle as close to the steps as possible.

      “If I get my hands on that